Radio Programming Ideas For Personalities and Programmers, Especially Country Radio Broadcasters.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Poll: Who Do You Trust - Government Or The Press?

Americans don't agree that the media report all sides of a story. In fact, Americans stand out from citizens of the other countries surveyed on a number of dimensions. They are the most critical of the news media's reporting of all sides of a story; 69 percent disagree that the media does this. They are also significantly more inclined to disagree (46 percent) that the media reports news accurately, and more likely to agree (68 percent) that the media covers too many "bad news" stories. The results of a new poll conducted by the BBC, Reuters, and The Media Center on trust in the media are out today. Worldwide, TV was also seen as the most "important" news source (56 percent), followed by newspapers (21 percent), the Internet (9 percent), and radio (9 percent).

While some 72 percent of respondents characterized themselves as keen news followers, almost three in ten people have abandoned a media source over the past year due to a lack of trust in its content. Young urban males ages 18 to 24 were most likely to have stopped using a news source because of a breach of trust.

The younger people are, the less likely they are to get their news from either television or newspapers, and the more likely they are to rely on the Internet. Women are more likely than men to name television as their more important source of news, while men are more likely than women to name newspapers and the Internet. Polling was conducted in person or by telephone from March 10 to April 4, 2006 with a total sample of 10,230 people. In four of the 10 countries, the sample was limited to major urban areas. The margin of error per country is +/- 3% 19 times out of 20.